Remnant Network Offline
by Moonphos
Summary: Remnant Network Online Open Beta is closing in a couple of hours. An avid gamer decides to stick it out until the server completely shuts down. And he's not the only one. ((Real-life-into-game; AU RWBY; Will mainly feature OCs.)) -Hiatus: Writer's Block-
1. Day 1:1 - Beta Server Shutting Down

**Disclaimer:** I don't own RWBY and various other sources that will be referenced.**  
A/N:** Enjoy. (Edited: 6 Apr 2019: see end)

* * *

**Day 1:1** Beta Test Server shutting down

"_*Yawn* This is more boring than I thought."_

"Yeah, there isn't really anything to do now other than spamming World Chat."

Tonight (or is it 'today'? It is, like, 3:10 a.m. currently) is the last night for the highly anticipated 'Remnant Network Online' (RNO) open beta. At 4 a.m. sharp local time, beta servers will be turned off for the next two months for hardware upgrades and bug patching, before the actual release of the mobile-based Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) game inspired by the animated series, RWBY.

The man yawns again in open-communications. "_Yeah, Boss. I don't think I can stick it out anymore."_

The listener squirms on his bed until he finds the magical spot of comfort. "Just go to—" Darn it, he is yawning now too. "—go to bed, Renault. It's like, 2 in the morning for you? I got no work on weekends, but you do."

"_Alright David."_ Renault's female avatar nods, the emulation setting copying the owner's motion through his phone. "_I'll see you tomorrow then."_

"See ya, buddy."

And Renault logs off and, with his avatar consumed by a swirling sky-blue twirl of light as he disappears, leaving David alone in the Beacon Academy's garden. At this point of time, most players that are sticking it out until the actual server shutdown are hanging out with their favourite 'Non-Player Characters' (NPC) of the series or chilling out in common locations. The garden is a rarely sought-after spot by 'Player Characters' (PC) that he found, where Renault 'Ren', Tammy 'Fey', Mei-Ling 'Linen' and him 'Dusty turns it into a place for them to gather for Mission runs (Team DFRL for Daffodil, because both Linen and him are nerds. Fey and Ren enjoy the anime and simply go along with it) and general 'Away From Keyboard' (AFK) area.

David yawns again, this time taking a hand away from his Bluetooth controller to push the Virtual Reality (VR) gear up to his forehead to rub the sleepy tears dripping off his eyes. _Maybe lying in the bed sleepy while waiting with nothing to do is a bad idea._ David is too lazy to get up and move, however, perfectly content to just lie on the bed as he waits for the official shutdown.

It is not as if anything special will occur. Many games' servers shut down all the time for scheduled maintenance. And with the closing of the open beta, all character data, except donation contributors, will be purged and everyone will begin anew when release servers are up. David has no real reason why he wants to do that, but it is not as if he has anything planned for Saturday. He might as well have fun spamming World Chat like all the current random players like him are doing it and then sleep until the afternoon. With the VR gear reset in place, David lies down on his bed and rests his hands and controller on his stomach.

There are two perspective viewpoints for playing this game. Some players find it easier to play from third person perspective, which is done from an over-the-shoulder camera shot. Since he uses a VR gear plus controller, David opts to play through the first person perspective (or eyes) of his male avatar. He uses the controller's thumb stick to make his avatar look around, confirming that the garden is devoid of life, both PCs and NPCs.

However, the chat system—in the lower left corner of the screen—is filled with the life with unintelligible gibberish. Occasionally, he still spots scamming websites of people shouting to buy in-game currency 'Lien' at the cheapest rate of five bucks per several thousands, which gets 'F'ed by other legitimate players until the message disappears due to traffic. David joins in with an 'F': an acquired meme for another reference originating from another game.

The time now is 3:30 a.m.. Rather than continuing to sit in the bench, David thumbs the controller's stick and moves his avatar about. Exiting the garden and entering the Beacon Academy, David chances upon a throng of PCs, forming a venerable train that is trailing behind the famous NPC that brought about the animated series' name: Ruby Rose; First Year Academic Student.

The game's timeline is set in an Alternate Universe (AU) to the original series. The teams that made the series have already been decided and set in this game, leading to the appearances of teams RWBY, JNPR, CRDL and CFVY. However, by this beta period, that is the extent of the game's storyline, thus it is a bastardised version of first season. All PCs begin as hired Hunters to prepare the Emerald Forest for the First Year Academic Students' initiation, getting a 'trial by fire' style of tutorial to the game's combat and mission mechanics. After the whole thing is done, PCs are free to interact with the heroes and heroines of the series in the academy setting, although all the NPCs have only a few dialogue lines attached to them as a reply currently.

NPC Ruby Rose is written to bare her curiosity and love of all things sharp and Hunters, so anyone interacting with the NPC gets a dialogue about 'weapons' or 'autographs' based on your reputation with the 'Hunter Association' and 'Beacon Academy' organisations, but without an option to reply to the NPC's inquiry. With a 'Reputation' status that PCs can build with certain organisations, players will get more dialogues options from and to NPCs—although those options have yet to be implemented for this last beta testing. Finally, with their destinations pre-determined by the developers, even though the NPC will 'talk to' players, they will not stop in their movement to talk with them, which leads to some strange 'walking conversation' that nerds like himself like to role-play at times.

David is not exactly a big fan for Ruby—that spot is held by Pyrrha Nikos—but he joins the PC train since he has failed to find out where NPC Pyrrha is meant to be at this in-game time throughout the beta test. The crowd of PCs is so thick, he has to switch to a third-person perspective so he can see above every avatars' heads, but he is still blinded by all the equipment effects of the PCs. NPC Ruby leads the randomly jumping, randomly dashing, chat-shouting PC train to a T-shaped corridor that is supposed to be the classroom area. Once there, she walks up to the wall and turns around to face down the way she came, programmed to wait for something to occur.

A lot of non-NPC-related things happen. David has to switch off his local-chat window just to get rid of all the inappropriate 'emote' spam showing up in the window of these PCs spamming with NPC Ruby as target. David is rather ashamed for himself that he had once been that way, but he is mature now. What he _will_ do is getting a screenshot picture with the NPC. The 'Camera' function has several options for PCs to play with, and there are two that are the most important to get a picture with the crowded NPC: The 'Hide Nearby Players' and 'Selfie' options. The latter will spin the camera around to centre around the PC, in this case himself, while the former option will make all the PCs disappear from his screen while he is using the camera.

With those options selected, the once-filled corridor is emptied instantly, leaving only David's black short-haired male avatar, in a beige coloured cosmetic trench coat that is left unbuttoned, standing one head taller beside NPC Ruby. Next, he turns off the 'Special VFX' option, which gets rid of the shiny sparkles that adorn his Dust-infused (RNO's version of Epic-grade) equipments, leaving a gunmetal grey shirt with a black-streak exposed under the trench coat, extended until the belt that is lined with cosmetic dust vials and a pouch, which is holding up a pair of dark blue jeans baring cracks of dull dark-blue. Holsters that increases his inventory space is cosmetically equipped on his right thigh. During the moment of David messing with the settings, his avatar performs an idling motion of stretching his legs with his fingerless-gloved hands and pacing the ground in his black combat boots.

Once the settings are done, David shifts his avatar about until he can see NPC Ruby and his avatar standing next to each other, with his pair of Tonfas—which has a special player-created cosmetic costume equipped on it, giving the pair a ferocious-looks of an organic, spiky and bladed weapons—hanging on his back clearly visible over his shoulders, then finally snaps a last screenshot. It is a beautiful Melee weapon with a built-in Sub-Machine Gun (SMG) fired under-slung, its artwork referenced from another game called 'Warframe', though Tammy and Mei-Ling have opinions about its aesthetics. The special costume is a reward for being a certain-tier cash donation contributor, sent to the developers through the use of the Cash Shop Voucher. It also ensures that his PC's name is reserved for when the game is released, together with extra bonuses that is not available at this time.

It is 3:52 a.m. by the time David has done with the last screenshot. The hallway is once-again filled with PCs after putting away the camera option. The chat window is scrolling with new text chat even faster now. He can barely see a sentence before it gets bumped out of sight by 'F'. Why are they spamming 'F's for? David snorts and joins in with the slow typing via using the keypad typing using the pointer controlled by the controller, which means a 'F' every 10 seconds or so. He gives up after the second 'F'. If anything, the chat degrades even further, with people just end up spamming 'asdlkj' or something, which is the only line David could recognise before it vanishes.

It is about time now, 3:59 a.m.. David will miss this fun action role-playing game (A/RPG). He is going to be bored for the next two months playing older games until RNO's release.

4:00 a.m.. Everyone in front of him vanish in a swirl of sky-blue tornado of their own. The rapidly scrolling chat window comes to a halt with a gibberish last text message and fades away seconds later. David looks to the left and right and sees nothing but empty corridors and NPC Ruby, still staring forward silently. This is a period of disconnection limbo where his phone's client-side network is attempting to reconnect to the server. Eventually, a message telling him that 'Connection lost. Please log out and try again.' will appear and forcefully shut down the game. And so he waits.

And waits.

He inhales and exhales a sigh.

And waits….

_...maybe even the message got frozen. Guess I'll log—_

"Um…" A feminine sound pulls David's attention and he looks down. NPC Ruby Rose, with her pair of silver orbs shyly looking up at him, a pen in one hand and a pad in another, suddenly reaches out to him with both items while bowing nearly to a right angle. "CANIHAVEYOURAUTOGRAPHPLEASE?!"

_...Um…What?_ "Ah, sure." David confusedly takes both items. "You are…"

"RUBY!" She all but yells out in excitement, bouncing back to a straight pose before she embarrassingly shrinks back. "Ruby Rose, sir."

David's brain short-circuits as he signs similarly to a birthday card for his gaming guildmates—_To Ruby Rose/Stay Awesome/Dusty_—automatically. He stares at the un-NPC-like RWBY main character all but snatches her pad when he stops writing. "THANK YOU THANK YOU!" The hyperactive girl yells with a bow, then turns to skip her merry way away while holding the pad like it is the Holy Grail. "OHMYGOSH THIS IS AWesommee…" Soon, her voice fades away with her person around the corner.

When he can no longer hear the NPC, David turns to look at the pen that the _NPC?!_ has forgotten to take back. It _feels_ like he is hold a _pen_, not a _controller?!_ He turn his wrist and _it_ _really feels like I just turned my wrist_ and rests the pen on his palm, feeling the expensive, metallic black pen rolling on his skin. That allows him to read a small engraving on it: _You can do it. W.S._

'…_What the fuck?!'_

* * *

**A/N:** ...Should I make first page/chapter into an A/N-chapter for inputting mechanic notes like this?

RNO mechanic notes

Reputation: Affects standings with certain organisations. Certain dialogue options and benefits will be unlocked base on your standing. This is the current list of planned organisations with reputation (before bonuses)

Beacon Academy (Neutral)  
Hunter Association (Friendly)  
Kingdom of Vale (Neutral)  
(more to come)

(**Edited: 6th April 2019)**  
1\. Changed 'Epic-Grade' to 'Dust-infused' and minor detail changes to David/Dusty's clothing and weapon looks  
2\. Reduced David/Dusty's height  
3\. Minor Grammar/Text edits

As you can see, I have no Beta-reader to check my stuff. I'm editing on the fly as I write next chapters. Hopefully it'll get better next chapter, in terms of needing to do on-the-fly edits.


	2. Day 1:2 - Quit Game

**A/N**: Enjoy

* * *

**Day 1:2 **Quit Game

"—is going on?!"

David is back in the garden, clutching the side of his avatar's head in confusion and staring downwards into space. He squeezes the skull, fingers ruffling his hair and _feeling the strands_ and _not feeling the VR gear!?_ He rubs his eyes with his wrists, letting out an exasperated groan while his panicking heart beats so loudly he almost can not hear his thoughts.

_In a game world? But that's impossible! I probably just fell asleep while waiting! Fuck that's it! I fell asleep and this is a dream. A super _lucid _dream or something. Oh shit, maybe I can actually fly properly this time!_

Because it is not the first time David has a lucid dream or nightmare and he actively knows about it. It is hard to distinguish between a _dream_ and _reality_ when a person walks through familiar spaces, neatly built and provided by the mind's experiences. Those dreams tend to be about school lives or weird zombie apocalypses and _it always feel good to sock an evil Roy Mustang in the face because you don't tell your evil scientists to poke someone with a zombie syringe_—

But the matter is that David is having a vivid dream of RWBY and RNO. Just that thought and—the idea that it is so lucid that he can _feel_ things—that he can possibly try to fly again in a lucid dream excites him. So he shoots right up to his feet, assumes an old Superman pose from the 40s comic book and _fly!_

…

…

His feet are staying firmly on the grass.

Okay, maybe the _dream_ is just so lucid that David's mind knows that Superman-flying is not possible. That deflates his mood quickly. He will be pissed he needs a flying-related Semblance since it _is_ a RWBY-RNO dream. He drops his legs and fall onto the garden bench again.

Leaning back as far as he can on the small backrest of the bench, David watches the sky as it lightens up to the early morning brightness. _This is nice…_The puffy white clouds drift on lazily. David can not say he has spent a lot of time just enjoying the stillness of life as time passes on, but he can certainly enjoy this.

…

…

…_This is boring. When is the dream going to end?_

David leans forward and cups his hands on his face, rubbing it tiredly and exhaling heavily. He sits his head on a palm supported by the elbow on his knee, watching a yellow butterfly fluttering above a flower bush. His eyes follow the insect's movement as it goes about its day and perch on a leaf for a moment. Once it is satisfied with whatever it was doing, it lifts off once again and flies in the top-left direction. David follows with his eyes until he can not go any further.

_The HP (Health Point) bar is missing..._He thought. He continues to stare to the upper-left corner of his vision for another few seconds before his mind catches up to the thought. He sits back up and looks about his vision, taking note of how 'clean' his sight is. _The UI (User Interface) is missing! How did I miss that?!_ He breathes deep and exhales, then looks around one more time: The HP and AP (Aura Point) bars that take the upper-left corner is gone; The row of buttons and the minimap on the upper-right is missing; The quick-skill and quick-item slots at the lower-right have taken a vacation; And finally the chat box on the lower-box has faded away since 4 a.m.. His vision is crisp and clear, despite that he is not wearing his glasses for his short-sightedness.

_Okay, so what if the UI is missing? It is a dream, so maybe I'm just not _dreaming _of the UI._ David rolls his head and massages his neck, relieving some of the soreness from staying in a position for too long. His fingers curl in, nails scratching lightly on his skin. He blinks as the feeling spreads from his neck. _Maybe I can—_He sets his sights on one of the many trees.

David does not know what tree it is—he works as an industrial area, not a botanist—but it is thick and tough like a proper tree is. He raps a knuckle on the bark, feeling the roughness of nature, then reconsiders his thought. _Maybe…maybe not…_He sighs, then knocks the tree with his forehead. He feels the impact reverberate in his skull, but nothing else after. He pulls back and frowns, rubbing the point of contact on his forehead. _Light knocks ain't gonna work._ "Okay!" He sighs, pulls back, then headbutts the tree.

His skull rattles, his ears ring, his vision doubles and spins, then he feels the pain. "Fffuuucckkk!" He fell on his knees as he grabs his head, trying to keep himself from falling out of the world. He pants hard, taking in as much oxygen as he can, one hand on his head and another holding onto the tree as support, watching the grass spin and reset in his vision, slower and slower as seconds passed. Once it finally did stop spinning, David picks himself up on wobbly legs and collapses back on the bench.

Waking up via pain had not work but instead gave him a mild concussion. David gently massages his forehead until the pain recedes before looking at his fingers: No blood, so his forehead skin did not split on the tree bark. _Man, Aura's awesome._ _Too bad it only reduces blunt damage by half._ Indeed, for that is the combat mechanics of the game, a balancing factor for the idea that instant-death mechanics are bypassed through the invulnerability provided by even a single point of AP. And in the light of this point and in this case, it does not seem to protect internal organs as well.

Back to his current situation: It looks to David that the idea of _this_ being just a gigantic, vivid _dream_ is further and further away. Yet it does not explain the _how_ or _why_ of it. David is always intrigued by the idea of being stuck in a video game, thanks to anime and manga like 'Log Horizon', 'dot hack sign' and the recently released 'Overlord'. He is not exactly motivated by his current living standards, so from time to time he daydreams about the possibility of such an occurrence.

_Be careful what you wish for._ What are the chances of something like that to actually happen to him?

"So what am I supposed to do now?" David ruffles his hair and thinks aloud. There is no UI for him to access anything. He does not know anyone in this world, except the characters from RWBY but they do not know him. He can not just waltz right up to someone and act like their long lost best friend. _Fuck, is this like 'Overlord'? Am I the only person? Or 'Log Horizon'?_ He do not know. Everyone despawned in his sight back at the corridor when 4:00 a.m. struck. And until now, he has not seen any other person except Ruby Rose..._Is she still an NPC? Probably not. I need to stop thinking like this is a _game_, 'cause it's not anymore…or is it?_

_Whatever, fuck that for now. What exactly do I do first?_ David taps a finger on his teeth, trying to recall what he learned from the examples he had seen. _Everyone from the anime seem to start with the options first, okay let's try this… …Menu?_

Nothing happens. He tries again aloud, but has the same result.

"Options? …Nada. What did the button look like again? Aarrr…oh, a cog! Cog! Menu! Shazzam! Hallelujah! Malaphaso!" He even lifts a hand, palms up like he is expecting a hologram. "…No dice. Fuck!" He scratches the back of his skull. "What else is there? **[Main Menu]**"?

Something popping up right in front of his face shocked him for a moment, causing him to throw himself back. He almost rock the bench off, but David manages to slam his favourite seat back onto its legs. After recovering, he looks at what has appeared so suddenly in front of him with no concept of personal space.

The 'window' is translucent, allowing him to look pass and see the brushes rustling from the small breeze that is picking up. The edges are rounded off, but that does not matter because David's hand did not encounter resistance when he put his hand through it. The borders of the 'window' and each selectable menu buttons are coloured in sky-blue, which was—is—the colour settings he saved when he was messing with personalisation one random day. The letters remain black in colour, since it is much easier to read on a blank background. Finally, he reads each button on the **[Main Menu]**.

**Main Menu**

**[Resume]  
****[Character]  
**_[Inventory]_**  
**_[Scroll]_**  
****[RemNet]  
**_[Options]_**  
****[Quit Game]**

David's eyes widen when he set his sights on the last button. His fingers attempt to hit that button before he realises he is doing it, then curses when he recalls that those buttons are untouchable by physical means. "Uh, **[Quit Game]**?"

A new 'window' pops up with the header '**Quit Game?**' written at the top. In the middle, within the text box, it reads: 'Are you sure you want to quit?' Which is followed by two options: '**[Yes]**' and '**[Cancel]**'. David hesitates as he reads the line again.

'Are you sure you want to quit?'

_'Are you sure you want to quit?!'_

It has not looked so ominous until now. It is just a genuine question that the developers put to entice players to stay longer and play the game. It has never looked as much as a threat of death like it does currently.

_Fuck, stop it!_ David shakes his head. _It's just text! I see this every day!_

Despite that, David does not immediately say the word and ends up thinking about it further. It is not like he is the 'loser' in the real world: Anime seems to highlight that in abundance for the protagonists. But David has a fairly good life. Sure, he does not _exactly_ like his current job, but the company is alright and his family is there; Sure, he is not in a relationship with anyone, but he has good friends like Renault, Tammy, Mei-Ling and members of his Guild from another game, which he kept in contact with since years ago; He certainly enjoys watching RWBY and playing this game, but they are not the ones he lives for and swears to.

_But I'm in a game! How many people can say that they _lived _a game!_

Which, to be fair, is also true. David honestly believe that he needed a vacation of some kind: Overseas, or some extreme sports, or just meet with his friends but that also means going overseas…Maybe hanging out in this…Whatever this term fits this game world…real-life-into-game? Trope? Delusion? Perhaps this is the vacation he needs.

David scratches his head again. He still believes he is in a lucid dream of some kind. _Ah whatever, if I wake up, I wake up. Till th— _

"**Don't quit the game!"**

The ultra-loud shout that erupted from behind him shocks David. He jumps out of the seat, immediately trips on his feet trying to stand and falls through the shattering 'windows', planting his face hard into the pavement. He thought he has just broke his nose.

"Ah, shit bro, sorry, you alright?"

_What the fuck?_ David groans and pushes himself up. "Yeah, all good." His rapidly beating heart slows down to a heightened pulse after he looks up and accepts the Screamer's hand, pulling him back to his feet. "Dude, what was that?" David pinches his nose: He was wrong, it has just being dinged. _Aura's awesome._

The unkempt, brown-haired man rubs his throat. "I think it's my Semblance." The man has a deep, rougher voice than David's. "I don't know how to control it."

David invites the Brunet to the bench he just evacuated from with a pat on the seat. "'Warcry'? So you're a 'Barbie' build?"

The rough-faced man—wearing plates riveted on mail over his body and shoulders, vambraces with gauntlets and what seems like more plates on cloth for leggings and sabatons. Hanging on his back is an assault rifle mounted on a long and large hilt, with two blade-prongs positioned 'above' and 'below' of the rifle, likely collapsed for safety and transport—nods. "Yeah, 'Strength' and 'Dexterity'-'Vitality' built. Never heard anyone called 'Barbarian' as 'Barbie' before…" He takes the offered seat and looks apologetically at David. "Sorry about that just now. I had to stop you from doing the same thing."

"Yeah, it's fine. I just didn't expect someone to yell from behind me out of nowhere." At least this PC has confirmed for David that his situation is unlike 'Overlord', but closer to 'Log Horizon'. "So what happened? Was someone with you?"

The armoured man looks away from David. "There was." Yeah, David guessed that. "Another player, not someone I know. Much like you, we discovered how to access the menu and saw the quit button. And he immediately did so while I hesitated…" The man trails off, his armour shuttering as if he is shaking…Oh right, okay, he _is_ shaking with fright.

"Alright, something bad occurs to those who quit the game." David figures he will just summarise it for the man. "Got it, I won't—"

"His face blew up."

David's eyes widen as he sucks a breath in. _What did you say?!_ He turns away from the brunet, trying to _not_ imagine how it would look. He just starts opening his mouth to get it over. "Fuck, I guess that's to do with the VR gear?"

"I think so."

"You using one?"

"Yes. I assume you are, as well."

David once again lay back on the rest, looking up to the sky as the clouds float by. And to think that he nearly _quit the game_ too. He sighs, and rubs his eyes.

…

…

_Are you sure you want to quit?_

* * *

**A/N: **Thank you for reading this!

(Edit 11/4/19: Minor edits. 'Shout' has been renamed ''Warcry'.)  
(Edit 15/4/19: Minor edit - Expanded the Barbarian's armour description.)

Mechanic note. The literations will be altered (by chapters) as things are expanded through the fanfic.

**User Interface (UI) **\- 1st literation  
[Game-sense] An interface that Players can interact with via Touchscreen function or Cursor button. Health and Aura points are represented on the upper-left corner of the screen. Menu buttons and mini-map/radar function to the upper-right. Quick-use and Quick-skill buttons are on the lower-right. Chat window is on the lower left.

[Current Situation] Does not exist.

**Menu selection** \- 1st literation  
[Game-sense] A drop-list of options for Players to access certain functions of the game. Within Options \- Settings, Players can set to 'Quick-Menu' for easier access to functions or 'Main-Menu' for a cleaner-looking UI.

[Current Situation] Requires PC Hunters to call out for each functions. Some options seem to be inaccessible.

**Aura Poin****t**** (AP)** \- 1st literation  
[Game-sense] Numerical value of a Hunter's (PCs and NPCs) Aura, acting as a Shield against Damage, absorbing it first before **Health Point (HP)**. While at least 1 point of AP remains, the Hunter is invulnerable to **Death** attacks. Blunt is partially reduced by AP, including impacts from environmental attacks. Mental ignores all AP.

[Current Situation] Does not prevent internal organs from Damage. Does not mitigate status effects. Does not prevent instant-death attacks (by VR gear?)

**Semblance** \- 1st literation  
[Lore-sense] Manifestation of one's innate and personal power as an ability unique to each individual, with the effects varying greatly from user to user. The nature of one's Semblance is noted as representing an aspect of their character. However, a person's Semblance can be similar to the Semblances of their parents or other family members. Not everyone discovers their Semblance despite being an active fighter, such as Roman Torchwick. (Source: RWBY Fandom Wiki)

[Game-sense] PCs obtain their Semblance determined by their Character Building Stats.

[Current Situation] No changes.


	3. Day 1:3 - Hospital

**A/N:** Enjoy.

(Minor edits on Day 1:2 - Changed 'Shout' to 'Warcry'; Expanded the Barbarian's armour description. Do not require any re-read. [A/N to be removed on Thursday])

* * *

**Day 1:3 **Hospital

"There's a crowd there."

David and the 'Barbarian' PC are looking towards a copse of trees from a far distance away, checking out the cordoned off area by Vale's Police Force, just outside and behind the Cross Continental Transmit System (CCTS or CCT) Tower. Curious bystanders far outnumbers the two Officers on the scene, but David can spot Beacon Academy's professor, one Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, seemingly teleporting around within the 'Keep Out' tape and reassuring the viewers, letting the Officers work in as much peace as he could offer.

"It's still there." The Brunet, standing taller beside him ,shuffles uncomfortably. "They covered him up. His body is still there."

A while earlier, after David calmed down from his brush of death via quitting the game, he had asked the the Barbarian-build player about the dead PC—

"_Is the body still there?"_

"_I'm…not sure. It should be, mate. Why?"_

"_I just had a thought. How long ago was it?"_

"_Some…some time. I think I wandered around for a bit lost before I saw you."_

"_Where is it?"_

—and came here. David had originally wanted to check it out to confirm _something_. He shudders from a sudden cold feeling. He had never seen a dead body before, at least not in a 'just died' state. He seen touched up bodies of his elderly relatives during funerals, which made them just seem like they had fallen asleep, pale and permanent. He had never seen a fresh corpse caused by a fatal injury.

_Alright, I'm scared of death. But like, who doesn't?_ David pants lightly, then swallows a build up of saliva. "Hey, you sure you see the body bag?"

"It's—it's there." His fellow PC glups. David spares a glance and sees the growing green in his face. The man then beats his chest once and swallows his bile. "Shit man, it's so much different from seeing it in movies."

"Well, we know it's all fake in the end." David coughs, trying to hide his smart-ass outburst in embarrassment. That is a habit he seriously need to get rid of. "Did anyone saw you when it happened?"

"I don't know." _Fat chance of that not happening, to be honest. Why were you guys behind the busiest place in Beacon?_ The 'Barbarian' rubs his throat, as if he heard David's accusing thought. "But I kind of vomited over there when it happened."

David taps his plates with an elbow. "Let's get out of here." David do not want to get spot by Beacon's staff, yet.

"Bro," the Brunet starts once they turn around and walk, following David without a destination in mind, "what did you wanted to check out?"

Now, where to start with it? Perhaps with his train of thoughts. "When you said that he died, it got me thinking about what happens when we die in game."

"Don't we just respawn at the hospital?" His companion takes a sharp breath. "Wait, that man is still there!"

"Yeah, mate." David taps his lip with a finger. "You get killed, you respawn at the hospital. They are probably waiting for an ambulance to arrive and pick up the body." _But will he come back to 'life'? How does 'Death' work now?_ He starts pinching his chin instead. "During Missions and PvP (Player versus Player) too, though it seems somewhat odd to respawn at the hospital when you die in the wildland." Calling 'Mission Failed' as 'death' is a misnomer, though. It is rather funny for him, when he had just started this game, that in-game death simply made him reappear at Vale General Hospital's entrance after the loading screen.

…_Vale General Hospital…?_

"But how does death work now?" His companion asks the same question David has in his mind. "The cities are Sanctuaries. While we could use powers in towns, they are superficial and does nothing."

David scratches his head. "The rules has changed. I wonder if he'll respawn at the hospital."

"It's been hours." The sun is hanging high up in the sky, but it is not yet noon. "Ambulances shouldn't be taking so long to get here."

"BA (Beacon Academy) is on the top of the cliff, so they are probably waiting for an airlift." This is a logistical nightmare. "And not if they're completely jammed up, I think?" The words just came out before his mind catches up. "Shit, if you and I aren't the only one ones around—and if the hospital's jammed up…Let's go there and check it out."

For players to get to and fro the Academy, they had to go to the transport hub and get a ride down by Bullhead transport. When it was just a game, it was an instantaneous teleport upon speaking and paying the receptionist. Now, David and his companion find themselves actually boarding a crowded airbus and make their way down to the city. The novelty of an airbus transport wears off quickly for David due to the claustrophobic feeling, having to squeeze on his companion's armour. And because of the ride, both of them overhear a lot of things from the other passengers.

"_Did you hear—"_

"—_explosion! There were several—"_

"_Lucky that they set aside ONE Bullhead—"_

"—_know anything about the CCT—"_

"—_not the only one to—"_

"Mate." David lightly elbows his companion.

The taller man tilts slightly. "Yeah, bro. I think you're right."

_Shit._ "That means they even activated Bullheads to do ambulance runs." David swallows a rising bile. _Please don't come out, ugh._ The enclosed space due to the number of passengers does nothing for his stomach. Luckily, it complains in a hunger growl instead. "You remember the way to the hospital?"

"Google map, bro."

David tilts his head up in surprise at the Brunet. "You have access to one?"

"Handphone. Or Scroll, whatever this game calls it." He wiggles a bit, arms moving but unable to get further than nudging David, then gives up and says: "Don't you have one?"

David is in disbelieve. "…we have one?"

"Yeah bro. It has a Maps app."

David starts patting his pockets and feels a rectangle piece of _something_ in his left pocket, where he would usually pocket his handphone in real life. He pulls it out to find a generic-looking smartphone. "We have a Scroll!?"

**[Discovered 'Scroll']**

**[Function unlocked]**

**[Menu can now be accessed via Scroll]**

"'the fu—" David almost yelled when his personal space is invaded by random text boxes again, flinching only his head backwards and hitting the Barbarian's plates with a soft _thunk!_

His companion snorts. "Yeah bro, the pop-ups are irritating, but did you have to exaggerate?"

"I hate surprises." David grumbles.

It still takes them an hour to walk to the general vicinity of Vale General Hospital, located in the heart of the city and near to the council buildings. They stop one street before, spot the big red Cross on one of the structures but unable to approach it any further, because there is almost no way to get there directly anymore.

"Holy fuck…"

"Jesus."

"Get the fuck out of the way!"

"Move move move!"

David and his companion are roughly pushed aside by the medic personnels carrying a stretcher between them. David has the unfortunate luck of looking at the wounded victim before they disappeared into the crowd—a person with the upper-portion of the face in bloody red. The personnels struggle to get through the maze of vehicles, until the leading man climbs a car and continues on over the road block.

"How many?" He barely hears his companion's question over the sirens and yelling and screaming and crying and—David palms his forehead, thrice. "God…How many of _us_ are there? Just how many? _How?_"

Not a question David has an answer to. The entire road to the cross junction is _packed_ with ambulances and cars; People are weaving in and out of the chaos with some, like the medics earlier, climbing and travelling over them; Even the sky is filled with Bullheads and other aerial vehicles David has never seen before, likely waiting to offload even more wounded.

_And I was just thinking I'll have some fun._ David rubs his eyes, trying and hoping not to cry, taking a rumbling breath and sighs. "This can't be the _only_ hospital in Vale, even if it's the only one the game uses. Why the hell is everyone cramming this place?"

"Vacuo has only one respawning hospital too." His companion supplies.

_Game assets. It comes down to game assets. It's a mobile game. There's no room for extra data to fill out the world._

There is nothing the duo can do other than staying out of the way, leaning against the wall of the residential high-rise building and absorbing the sights and sounds of the _nightmare_ happening right in front of them. The number of vehicles continue to increase—more saloons than ambulances—causing even more blockages and problems for the carriers. Some Bullheads, with their cases offloaded, are trying to clear the area by airlifting jammed vehicles.

"Glynda would've cleared this pile faster than we can blink." David comments. Her 'Telekinesis' Semblance would have made short work of them.

"Why isn't she?" His companion is seated on the pavement, using the wall as a backrest.

From a lore-standpoint, David could guess. "Ozpin probably held her back thinking it's an attack by Salem."

His companion is silent for a moment, eyes frowning in contemplation, then…"Who's Salem?"

David looks at the Brunet for a moment, reckoning that he has just forgotten in the rush of event. When he is just staring back, David sighs. "How far into RWBY series did you watch?"

"Only the first season." He shrugs. "It just feels too slow for me. I don't remember if I even finished watching it."

"Why would you be interested in this game, then?"

"I played their game, Grimm Eclipse."

"Ah." That made _some_ sense.

"A friend recommended it. I tried and kind of enjoyed it."

"Right." David nods, then goes back to answering his question. "Salem is the big bad boss behind the Grimm. She has a bone to pick with Ozpin."

His companion looks to the chaos again. "You reckon Glynda is watching out for an attack?"

"Probably."

Once again, silent contemplation occupies the duo. David fails to draw a similarity between the current situation to any of the animes he was trying to gleam knowledge from. He just watch as the chaotic procession occurs, wondering if this was how it looked like when a natural disasters happened in other countries. Living his whole life in the safety of Singapore, he had never been in a situation like this.

_What am I doing? I really should try and help. What is wrong with me?_

The problem is he has no idea how to help, other than staying out of the way. He has no medical knowledge beyond basic first aid learned while serving National Service. He does not drive, but the vehicles are log jammed entirely anyway. He is just a Grimm-Slaying Huntsman. And there is no Grimm to stay in sight.

No. Staying out of the way is the most help he could offer right now. Damn.

And so he continues to watch, scanning the scene from side to side, feeling miserable about it. His eyes stop at the person sitting listlessly on the edge of the pavement and road, a black-haired woman who has been crying her eyes out before they had even reach here. She has long since ended her tears, just hiccupping while resting her head on her knees. When David scrutinises her further, he realises something.

_I can't tell if she is a PC or an NPC. Shit, we're all going to have issues finding people in this mess. And even more issues hiding things…_

Wait, why did they have to hide things again? Why did they have to hide anyway?

_Because there's no telling what the denizens will react to just being someone else's figment of imagination. I _might _be homicidally pissed if I find out I'm just some idiot's imagination, who knows?_

David inhales a deep breath and walks, heading towards the woman in a light-grey jacket and black pants. There is no obvious notice of himself when he stands in front of her—pausing a moment to glance at the Brunet eyeing him with a questioning gaze—and lowers himself to a crouch. She is startled only when he places a hand on her shaking shoulder. "Miss."

"Ye—" The woman draws a deep breath and rubs her eyes. She sniffs and hiccups once more. Too bad David has nothing to offer her in hand for her dried tears. With some composure, she replies. "Yes?"

David, at this moment, had absolutely no idea what to do. Why did he want to do this again? _Just go with the flow._ "Let's take a seat over there." He points. Her head follows and sees the wall the Brunet—who he just realises that he has not yet introduced with—is using as a backrest. "Keep out of the way of the medics and doctors. I already got kicked once."

"Oh!" She seems to have just realised where she was sitting. "Right, sorry."

"Come on."

He stands back up, offering a hand that she accepts and pulls her to her feet clad in black ankle boots. It is then he sees her mostly-pink tee shirt, recognising some odd marks—which form three lines on her chest that look like claw marks—is white in colour and glows with a dim light. Over her tee shirt, she wears a harness that stretches over her _chest_, which the grip of a handgun is tucked under her left _side_, while on the right _side_ is a knife as long as her forearm from handle to edge. He escorts her to the wall, where Brunet gives her a smile and a nod. She returns one. She quickly settles down, sitting beside Brunet while David looks at the both of them.

_Just say it._ David sighs. "Players?"

The woman sits straight with a surprise. "You too?" She turns to Brunet, who nods.

"Yup, miss." Brunet turns to David. "How did you know?"

"Dust-infused clothing." The truth is that he guessed, but he do not need to let them know about that. "The only known character to wear DI (Dust-infused) gears—who is not yet an NPC in this game yet—is Cinder Fall. And true to the series at this moment, no NPCs here currently uses DI clothing."

"That's clever." The woman is picking her tee. "So it's one way to identify someone."

David scratches the back of his neck. "He found me first though, while I was messing with the menu."

"And who is Cinder Fall again?"

Now it is the woman's turn to look incredulous at Brunet. David answers him. "Remember the first episode, after the thief tries to escape Ruby?" The man nods. "The scene where he escapes on the Bullhead, when Glynda tries to stop it, Cinder Fall is the woman that appears to counter her."

The Brunet snaps his finger. "The girl in a scarlet dress with fire power?"

The woman seems to catch on that the Brunet does not have the knowledge of the series. "That's right. Her name is mentioned for the first time in Volume 2."

"That explains why I don't know her name." Brunet crosses his arms while looking to the ground. "I didn't even get past Volume 1."

The woman smiles. "It is nice to meet the both of you. I'm Fiona. And what are yours?" She glances at from Brunet to David.

A short rattle of armour and Brunet is now facing them, forming a triangle. "I'm Sivitri." He raises a hand to Fiona, which she takes into a handshake. "Pleasure."

"Dusty, likewise." David exchanges handshake with Fiona as well. Then he blinks. _Huh?_

_Hmm…Actually, it's probably better to use colour names from now on…Hmm, Fiona is supposed to mean a flower of some kind, isn't it? What is 'Sivitri' a reference to?_

"Alright, so, now that pleasantries are done," Sivitri looks from Fiona to Dusty, "what now?"

* * *

**A/N:**Thank you for reading. To those who Followed and Favourited, you motivate me.

One more main-OC to make the Team. There will be more PC-based OCs in the future, to be side-chars or antagonists. And while I have some ideas for them, I have no immediate, set plans yet.

Lastly, the primary plot hasn't come up yet. This is all just world-building. I'd say 'Soon' for the plot.

**Character Defeat or Death** \- 1st literation  
[Game-sense] This status occurs when a PC's HP is reduced to Zero. When 'Defeat' or 'Death' occurs, PCs are sent back to their City of Deployment, reappearing at the front of the city's Hospital.

In Player versus Environment (PvE), such as Open-World combat or Mission Deployment, PCs who are 'Defeated' or have their 'Mission Failed' respectively will lose all 'Items' and 'Rewards', as well as losing a small amount of In-Game Currency 'Lien' for repaying the Hospital Bill. All Experience Points gained during either events are reduced by 50%.

In Player versus Player (PvP), such as Tournaments and Sparring Mode but excluding 'Wanted: Dead or Alive', PCs will not receive any penalty for 'Defeat'. If PCs are tagged for 'Wanted' and killed by Police, Syndicate or other PCs, they will receive an Experience and Lien penalty while losing their 'Wanted' status.

[Current Situation] No one knows if there are any changes. Unknown status regarding those who are under 'Killed by Quit Game' effect.

**Coloured Names** \- 1st literation  
[Game-sense] -No data-

[Current Situation] PCs seems to have non-coloured names. Why is this and how will this play out?


	4. Day 1:4 - Robot, Scrutiny, Schizophrenia

**A/N:** Enjoy!

Almost didn't made the self-imposed dateline of Wednesday evenings. Tried writing other Fanfics but I lost motivation when I decided chapter length over regular posting of them. Now I just post them, editing on the fly if I can't check them in time. Feel free to point out my mistakes in PM (especially if its minor).

Quick word and spoiler: I recommend watching 'Log Horizon' anime if you haven't. It's good. I'm also mainly using LH as a reference for this fanfic. Finally, I haven't exactly hide it in previous chapters, but take note that the characters will continue to refer to known knowledge based on real life in a very spoilery way for their situation. Games will come in too.

* * *

**Day 1:4** \- Robotic, Scrutiny and Schizophrenia

**[Discovered 'Inventory']  
****[Added 'Key Item: **_**Wallet (Basic)**_'**]  
****[Discovered 'Key Items']  
****[Discovered 'Lien']  
****[(Collapsed) Several Key Items acquired]  
****[Functions Unlocked]**

"Three Chicken Burgers."

"Thank you, Sir. Will you be paying by Lien or Credits?"

"Um, Credits."

"Please scan here." _Beep._ "Thank you! Please come again!"

Rather than returning the 'VBC Bank' card into the secured safety that is his _now-existing_ wallet, Dusty scrutinises the details of it as he makes his way back to the playground beside the stand, where Sivitri and Fiona are waiting, a paper bag swinging in hand. The red-coloured card is almost identical to the one real life banks use: It has Vale's signature symbol beside the bank's name, a string of numbers, issue and expiration dates, security code, magnetic strip, a chip and—most importantly—his avatar's apparent _full name_?

'Dusty Memphos'.

He slips the card into a pocket then rubs his eyes. He is almost certain of the surname's origin, but since the other two had pulled up their own wallets the moment he did when he volunteered to get some food, he wants to get their inputs about this.

The playground is devoid of life, save for theirs. His companions are waiting under a tree's shadow, cast by the descending sunlight of a late-afternoon, early-evening time, sitting on the carved stone bench long enough to seat a family and, as Dusty guessed, is still checking out the 'Key Items' the game system…or the 'World?'—has so helpfully provided. Both of them notice his approach when he crunches a dried leaf on the pavement. Dusty pulls out one of the burgers, wrapped in a piece of paper, and tosses it to Sivitri sitting at the further side, before handing Fiona the second burger when he claims the seat beside her. The former nods in thanks, the latter mumbles a gratitude.

Sivitri wolves down his burger in seconds. "Damn, that's good." His stomach roars. "I didn't even notice how hungry I am until now. How much was it?"

Dusty, like Fiona, is taking his time with the meager food. But that was unintentional. He swallows his small bite. "I don't know, the guy didn't say." He pulls away and sees the _tiny_ bite. "I paid with a bank card instead, which works, but I didn't take the receipt." He shrugs and tries to eat again.

"Alright! I'm going to grab another one or two. Be right back." Sivitri gets up and jogs to the burger stand at the roadside.

Fiona is still checking a green card as she chewed her food. The burger successfully pulls her attention from the card for a comment. "It's tasty. I thought it would be tasteless like an anime I watched before." She continues to eat.

Dusty pulls his food away to see another _tiny_ bite. This time he realises that something in his mouth was interfering with his burger. "Like 'Log Horizon'?" He comments. He holds the burger with one hand and sticks the tip of his other hand's finger into his mouth, feeling up his teeth.

"Yes!" Fiona looks excitedly up, then oddly at what Dusty is doing. "What's wrong?"

"I think I have _fangs_?" Dusty is definitely feeling sharp canine tooth—two pairs, in fact, one pair on the top and the other on the jaw. He absentmindedly rubs his wet finger on his jeans, then recalls something and reaches for his wallet. Fingers fly though the motion of pulling it out, opening it and taking out his green card. The small text of '_Kingdom of Vale Identification Card'_ is written at the top of it. Details are stencilled on it—

**Name:** Dusty Memphos  
**Race:** Faunus  
**Species:** Monkey

—along with several other particulars about his avatar. Dusty blinks. "I totally forgot about that."

"What?" Fiona leans over to read his Identification Card (IC). "You played a Faunus character? Isn't it difficult with the disadvantages?"

"Not very terribly for me. I had more time to play this game."

The disadvantages of being a Faunus PC rather minuscule for Dusty. For starters, reputation standing with different organisations is one of the few things highly important for players to succeed in RNO as access to certain aspects of the 'End Game' are locked behind those standings. Faunus-PCs begin with a lower reputation standing with all major cities except 'Menagerie'—though the city has not yet been implemented in for OBT—and 'White Fang'. Faunus-PCs also earns lower reputation points and even loses them over time, until the Faunus-PC reaches maximum standing with the reputation. It is then 'soft-locked' and the weekly decrease of point halts. However, certain actions that negatively affects the standing will cause Faunus-PCs to once again gain the weekly deduction.

There are several other disadvantages as well, including higher fees and bills, lower open-world Mission rewards and even some Missions are locked out when dealing with Human-NPC clients. While troublesome, these few disadvantages can be overcome simply by spending more time playing the game.

As for the advantages of being a Faunus-PC, players can gain favouritism with the 'White Fang', if they so choose to, but only the Points are implemented and none of the rewards yet. According to the roadmap, the Faunus-only organisation will open access to several unique cosmetic items and Missions. Faunus-PCs also gain an unique ability, based on a chosen trait, as well as permanent night vision, which its uselessness for the game had been complained about by players since the start from a game play standpoint.

"It is not too bad, all things considered." Dusty takes another bite out of his burger. "Just troublesome at times."

Fiona reaches out for his IC in a 'May I?' gesture, which he reciprocates. It seems she is comparing with her own, then she pulls out her wallet for another card in light-blue with white stroke lines. "Do you mind if I borrow your Hunter License Card too?"

"Sure." Dusty passes her the requested card.

Sivitri comes back shortly after, bearing gifts of drinks and salty sides for Dusty and Fiona. She also asks for the same things from Sivitri and receives them. Silence befalls them as they eat their fill and Fiona checking out her deck of identifying cards. As Dusty watches what she is doing, Sivitri taps her shoulder. "Can I ask you something? It might be personal…"

Fiona puts away the cards. "Yes?"

"It's about earlier, at the hospital…"

"Oh." She turns away from Sivitri, a sad look adorns her features.

_'the hell, mate? Don't just randomly ask something like that!?_ Dusty frowns at Sivitri, who returns a _I know what I'm doing_ frowning, narrowed eyes. Dusty bumps her shoulder. "It's fine if you need time…"

"No, it's okay." She sniffs and shakes her head, then stares absently at her card sitting at the top of the pile in her hand. "She is my close friend from secondary school."

Dusty shifts in his seat.

"She introduced me to a lot of different manga, anime and games. She is kind of a geek." Fiona smiles at her memories. "We just kind of 'clicked' together at the start and it never went away since. Even after we went our separate ways because of our career choices we still maintain contact." She pulls out her handphone—Scroll—and unlocks it, then stops, stares at the screen and realises what she is holding.

"What is she like?" Dusty asks.

"She's socially awkward, but she seems to be doing better these few years. She said she's a Streamer now and have an audience. I just—" Fiona sighs. She taps the 'Contacts' option, which opens up to a drop list containing only a single name: 'Doogee (Offline)'. "How did this happen? What's going to happen to us?"

Neither men knows the answer. Sivitri looks up at Dusty. "Hey, bro. Do you still think if they'll…" He tilts his head in the direction of the Hospital.

Dusty shakes his head. "I don't know. We can only wait and see."

Silence comes again as the time drags on. Fiona keeps her Scroll away and nods at the two of them, a _I'll be fine_ small smile plastered on and returns to the cards. Sivitri pulls out his Scroll not long after, rapidly tapping the screen for whatever reason. Dusty spares another look at his companions, then succumbs to the need of Scroll-check as well.

**EuGeNiSia** (Offline, _8 hours ago_)  
**Fey** (Offline, _4 hours ago_)  
**Linen** (Offline, _4 hours ago_)  
**Ren** (Offline, _1 hours ago_)  
**Yoonie** (Offline, _1 day ago_)

Just as he thought briefly, none of his friends are online. He wonders if Mei-Ling and Eugene knows of his condition yet, as they are his fellow countrymen. If he is being stuck in a game world, his real body should be in a coma.

Or just maybe, everything here is just an _extended, crazy dream_.

"Hey guys," Sivitri's sudden raised voice almost made Dusty drop his Scroll, "check out your 'Skills', under 'Character' section. Tell me if you find something off." Dusty and Fiona looks at each other, then they do as Sivitri said.

Since the discovery of his Scroll, the main menu is accessible from the electronic device. It takes two taps to get out of the contact list to the main screen, which appears to be similar to the main menu holographic window when he called out for it earlier. Only _[Options]_ remains grey in colour, inaccessible to him. He hits **[Character]**.

**[Status]  
****[Skills]  
****[Abilities]  
****[Equipment]**

**[Return]**

This is the first time he has access the **[Character]** menu, though it is not the first time he seen it. The set up remains similar to how it looked back in reality as a game.

'Status' would go into the numerical value of the PC's physical aspect, which is also the screen for PCs to allocate growth points that ultimately made each PCs different from each other—unless everyone follow a guide and made them the same, in a numerical-sense.

'Skills' would be the physical capabilities of the PCs at using weapons and their own body. Everything a PC can do physically has a skill name and a tier of power, which is all catalogued here. Unlike 'Status' and 'Abilities', all skills can only be improved by continuous training and grinding of them.

'Abilities' would be where Aura and Semblance powers are kept. While the numerical value of Aura is mainly increased in the 'Status' menu, certain aspects of Aura can be specialised through this menu, such as _Dust_ usage and _defence_ capacities. A PC's Semblance is also evolved via tree-like branches through this menu, giving PCs a little more personalisation to their Characters.

'Equipment' would be the armours and weapons PCs will put on. At this point, Dusty wonders if it is obsolete, since he can physically touch and pull at his clothing. But…maybe…he can see what kind of status a piece of equipment will provide if he checks here next time.

He taps **[Skills]**.

A long drop down list fills his screen. Dusty blinks.

_There's nothing to see here._

Every skill in the game has a tier of power that forces PCs to need to work for getting to the highest stages of areas or Missions. 'Auto-Attack', 'Auto-Fire' and 'Auto-Cast' have five tiers each, with each tier needing to reach maximum level before the PC can start working on the next one. Each tier reduces the chance of an attack failing—either with a 'miss' or 'glancing hit'—when the PC faces a higher tier Grimm or other PCs. To actually achieve reaching the highest tier, the PC needs to spend a lot of time working on it. Which results in, by the end of the OBT, many PCs focusing on only a single aspect, whether prefer to fight in Melee, Range or Dust- and Semblance-based fighter.

Case in point, Dusty's 'Auto-Attack' is currently listed in tier 5 but only twenty-two percent trained, while 'Auto-Fire' sits in the middle of tier 3 and 'Auto-Cast' is almost untrained. And he had been playing this game since the middle of December, four months ago.

_Doesn't seem like there's anything different here…_

And then, there are Weapon-class Masteries that PCs have to train, in order to properly use a certain type of Weapon-class—such as a sword, spear, hammer etcetera—at higher tier contents. If the PC is untrained in the way of their equipped weapon, their attacks will simply 'miss' or 'glance off' of strong enemies.

_Hmm, what did he wanted us to find?_

Finally, the rest of the list contains passive skills that do not quite fit into the generic skill list: 'Aura Unlock'; 'Cooking'; 'Driving'; 'Faunus Trait: Chomp' due to his Race, Species and chosen physical trait; 'Fishing'; 'Huntsman's Psyche'; 'Semblance Unlock'; And finally 'Survival'.

_I don't see anything._

"I don't see anything."

"It's _there!_" Sivitri vehemently insists. "See carefully." Dusty Scrolls back to the top and starts reading once again.

And then Fiona yelps. "Wait, I think I see it? 'Huntress's Astute'? _'Contemplate and accurately assess through situations'_...Was there such a passive before?"

_Wait…no. Huh? _

"I got 'Huntsman's Mind'." Sivitri reads the description. "'_Calmly and logically thinks through situations'._ What does that even mean?"

_That's not it._

Fiona snaps her finger. "That's a 'Gamer's' ability. From a Korean comic which a real life person gain a Game Protagonist-esque power. Does that mean we have some form of Gamer's ability for being trapped here?"

"Bro, what about you?"

_Nothing. Shut up!_

Dusty slams a wrist to his forehead, with his hand holding tight on his Scroll at where he saw the same passive skill. The _noise_ in his head…"Hunt—'Huntsman's Psyche'. I have a voice in my damn head."

"What?!" Both his companions yell, with Fiona pulling his Scroll—which only succeed in just pulling his whole arm—to read the text. "'_Observes and psychologically thinks through situations'_. And now you're hearing voices that don't exist?"

_Well I tried._ Dusty thought the _entity_ in his mind just shrugs. _'Entity' sounds stupid. Just call me David. That is not you that's me! Nah, you're…you know what? What?! Never mind. I'll just shut up now, good luck pretending to not be insane! _

Dusty feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up to see Fiona watching him worriedly. When had Sivitri stand up and hovering over him? "Will you be alright, Dusty?" She asks.

Dusty sighs. "Yeah, I'll be fine." _As long as his head voice remain silent. It's zipped!_

"So you have schizophrenia for your new passive skill." Sivitri laughs. "I feel ya, bro."

"It's not good to laugh at someone else's misfortune." Fiona admonishes the Brunet, slapping his shoulder. "How did you know something was wrong with us?"

Dusty is interested in that too.

Sivitri loses his grin. "I just thought that…it seems strange that you had gotten over the thought of your friend. And I caught Dusty speaking to himself a few times."

"I did?"

"You did just earlier as well, when we were looking at your Scroll." Fiona confirms. Dusty palms his face, feeling embarrassed. "You didn't yell or speak out. You just mumbled to yourself." Fiona hums. "So your real name is 'David'? I suppose that don't sound like a coloured name for RWBY's lore."

Sivitri nods. "Finally I just recall that I, too, had just seemingly gotten over watching someone died _in front of me_." He shakes his Scroll. "My thoughts are compartmentalising themselves. I don't think I really like it all that much. I feel like a robot, I think?"

"But now we know we all have new issue surrounding our situation, thanks to you." Fiona holds up a hand, cards pinched between her thumb and index finger. "And about that…'Huntress's Astute'? It's not the full reason I _act_ this way." She looks at the Hunter License Card, her own at the top. "I'm a policewoman in life." Dusty blinks in mild surprise. "I had a partner and some of my fellow officers killed in altercations in my time. I learned quickly that I had to keep functioning despite that or the situation will deteriorate even further." The smile she gives once again is filled with sadness. "I've already cried for her when I'm still confused. I can continue to mourn for her later. But right now…" She brandishes the deck of cards in her fingers into a fan. "This is more important. I believe these ICs of ours use information from the game's Account Creation data."

Dusty dives right in for the sudden change of subject to get away from his _not_-schizophrenia Gamer skill. "I had thought it was weird when I saw my Account Username in full on my debit card. What about the Hunter License?"

Fiona spreads out the cards on her thighs. "Your cards are the ones with obvious differences. Take a look." Dusty and Sivitri lean in to read the details.

**Kingdom of Vale Identification Card  
**Name: **DUSTY MEMPHOS  
**P.N.: #920910.65456

**Kingdom of Vale Identification Card  
**Name: **FIONA LI  
**P.N.: #870622.220186

**Kingdom of Vacuo Identification Card  
**Name: **SIVITRI  
**P.N.: #900101.83729

"—and here—"

**Hunter's License  
**Vale Headquarters  
Name: **Dustilicious  
**C.N.: 2018DEC1101838

**Hunter's License  
**Vale Headquarters  
Name: **Fiona Lily  
**C.N.: 2019JAN2283511

**Hunter's License  
**Vacuo Headquarters  
Name: **Sivitri  
**C.N.: 2018DEC2145209

"Isn't that our Personal Number used for adding friends based on Account?" Sivitri points at the latter set of numbers on their IC. "What would be the first set?"

The numbers on his card look familiar. If Dusty swaps the numbers around in sets of two… "Date of birth? I think it goes by Year, Day then Month?"

"You're right." Sivitri hand-hammers his palm. "I only just changed the year and made my account."

Dusty shrugs. "I cheated too. That's just a random date I repeated on every game account creation."

"I humoured my friend when she asked me to join her after the New Year, when they added another server." Fiona points to her string of 'P.N.' numbers. "They changed the algorithm for new accounts after that."

"Is 'C.N.' 'Character Number'?" Dusty strokes his chin with a finger. "No, that's not it. 'Creation Number'?"

Fiona does the chin-stroke gesture as well. "I don't think so. It would be strange for receptionists or any other Hunter-handling jobs to ask for your 'Creation Number'."

Sivitri hammers his hand again. "'Certification'!" He taps his head. "License card is basically certification document to do your job. If I recall right, even the receptionist say something about being 'certify' as a Hunter after you completed the tutorial."

"Right!" Fiona snaps her finger. Dusty agrees with Sivitri's assessment as well. "But how do we explain the difference of our names? Especially you." She directs the question at Dusty.

_Working name versus Real name._ Dusty palms the side of his skull. "Fake names for separating our social life from work life." He have to agree with his _backseat driver_ that it is a good reason for having alternate names. "I mean, the Syndicate—Criminals, Thugs, Gangsters—they are an actual organisation entity we can grind rep points (Reputation) with. A fake name shouldn't be unbelievable for any Hunters that regularly frequents known Syndicate areas, like Junior's nightclub." He shrugs. "Like hiding our true identities."

Fiona and Sivitri looks at each other, then nods. "That could work," the Policewoman checks out his license once more, "but we should probably try and find out if something like that is legal. Which reminds me…" She pulls up Sivitri's cards and points at the Brunet with them. "What exactly does your name represent?"

"Huh?" Sivitri tilts his head, not understanding the question

"Colour names." Dusty attempts to explain the lore of RWBY-verse naming system. "Simply put, there was a 'Great War' about eighty years back, before the start of the anime that this game is based on. The result is that everyone is now named after a colour, sounds like one, or references one. Take me for example, 'Dusty' is the grey crap that settles on places. And 'Fiona' is…" Dusty stares at said woman, who is looking back, trying to recall what her name meant. He gives up after five seconds. "…is it a flower?"

"No." Fiona shakes her head. "It's 'white' or 'fair'. I added 'Lily' for my character name in case someone reporting me to the GMs (Game Masters) without even attempting to look up the reference of my name." The duo turns to Sivitri again. "So what about yours?"

"Not directly a colour reference." Sivitri rubs his eye. "It's a reference to a Magic: The Gathering card: Sivitri Scarzam, a creature of Blue and Black Mana. But is colour-name actually important?" He leans in, desperate. "I remember seeing so many players with random names!"

"I…don't know?" Fiona glances at Dusty, but he does not know if that will fly as well. He shrugs at Fiona.

"They loosen the name-rule since CBT (Close Beta Test) so they can get more players and stress-test the servers, then carried it on for OBT, but has stated that they will enforce the name-rule in the released version." Then he addresses Sivitri. "I think for safety's sake in our situation, we should try and get your name changed."

"How do we do that?"

"The Cash Shop sells Renaming Certificate." Dusty accesses **[RemNet]** on his Scroll, where the **[RNO News]**_,_ _[BBS]_ (Bulletin Board System), _[Cash Shop]_, _[Support]_ and **[Return]**. There is no response when Dusty taps the grey button of the Cash Shop. "Shit, I can't access it." He gets the same result when he tries to access the other two greyed out options. He hits the News, which opens to show several messages, then views the latest and last update.

_**By:**_ _[GM]Graphite  
__**Subject:** __OBT Shutdown  
__**Date:** __3/2/19, 1926 +8GMT_

_All Hunters of Remnant, the final phase of _RemNet O _has finally come to an end. The servers will shut down at 0300, +7GMT for the next 2 months for an overhaul and software updates. Bug fixes will commence and new contents will be added. During this time, certain features will not be available from our official website._

Armoury  
Auction Site  
Bulletin Board System  
Cash Shop

_Hunters may still access the official forums for the latest information._

_All Character Data will be reset and lost. Hunters who supported the game will receive RNOC through their Account along with their support tier gifts when the game is available. Your character names will be reserved in your Account and you will also receive a Renaming Certificate. Remember Hunters! The 'Naming Rule of Colours' will take effect on the start of the official release. PC-Police and PC-Guards will be able to catch Hunters who violate the rules._

_Thank you, everyone, for your support for this game and joining us. We'll see you in 2 months! Take care and Good Hunting._

"Ah, right. News said they closed the cash shop for the transition." Dusty informs his companions.

"Crap." Sivitri rapidly taps his Scroll, which Dusty assumes that he is checking the last news himself.

"Here." Fiona is tapping her Scroll too. "Graphite said 'PC-Police'. Maybe we can go to the police station and get a name change."

Dusty grins and stands. "Alright, that sounds like the best option right now. Let's get there and see—" His Scroll suddenly beeps, cutting him off.

Actually, all of their Scrolls beeped. They glance at each other, then turn to their Scrolls again.

Exiting the **[RemNet]** menu, Dusty sees that he has received a notification under **[Scroll]**. Tapping that brings him into the home screen of his Scroll, which works exactly like a handphone in real life. There is a new message in the inbox, so he opens it.

Dusty blinks in surprise. The message is from Beacon Academy.

_**From:** __Beacon Academy  
__**To:**__ (a)HuntersBeacon  
__**Cc:**__ (a)ValeCouncil, (a)ValePoliceForce_

_All Hunters and Hunters-in-Training—with exception to those currently assigned on patrols and guards—are to report to the foyer of Beacon Academy immediately._

—

**_Ozpin  
__Headmaster  
__Beacon Academy_**

Dusty stares and rereads the terse message again, then looks up to his companions exchanging glances.

_Uh oh._

* * *

**A/N**: Thank you for reading! First review! Bigger thank you!

A little bit longer than the first 3 chapters. Minor look into the primary plot. Everything else is info dump for world building and character building.

**Reputation** \- 1st literation (addendum)  
More organisations that has a Reputation Standing attached.

Kingdom of Vacuo - Associate (PCs hailing from Vacuo start at Well-known)  
Shade Academy - Associate (PCs hailing from Vacuo start at Well-known)  
Syndicate \- Neutral  
Menagerie \- Distrust (Human Race), Friendly (Faunus Race)  
White Fang - Hatred (Human Race), Friendly (Faunus Race)  
More to come

**Auto** **skill Tier/Level** \- 1st literation  
Tier levels are an arbitrary way used to keep players within a certain level of content. At the beginning, players can only effectively combat against Grimm nearby of Sanctuaries, which are the weakest. As players travel into or accept Missions that goes further and deeper into the Wildlands, Grimm creatures will become stronger and tougher to fight. Ancient Grimm (A.K.A. Boss-tier Grimm) have their own unique status that made Auto-Skill relevant. If the PC is untrained, they will not be able to contend in what players called the 'End Game' content, the last and hardest areas and Missions.

**Coloured Names** \- 2nd literation  
[Game-sense] Game Devs have loosen the Name-Rule for the reason of Stress-testing servers. This loosening began during Close-Beta Test and carried on throughout Open-Beta Test. In two separate posts (beginning and closing of OBT), they have confirmed that the loosened rule will be enforced upon the Released Version. To begin the enforcement, all Character Data during CBT and OBT will be purged.

A Cash-Item called 'Renaming Certificate' can be purchased and used to change the Character's name.

[Current Situation] Due to Cash Shop being unavailable, 'Renaming Certificate' can not be purchased. There may be a possible way to change a names at a Police Station.

**Character: Race & Species** \- 1st literation  
[Human] Considered the beginner race for any players starting out the game. Humans come with a balanced starter stats, no advantage or disadvantages. NPCs trust Humans naturally, but certain affiliated organisations may have second thoughts about Human PCs.

[Faunus] Considered harder to play. Faunus has permanent Night-Vision passive skill (though widely considered useless for the game at its current state) as well as an unique 'Species Trait'. Vendor items cost 15% more during purchase, 20% lesser when selling and may even be refused service while under a certain level of Reputation Standing. Every in-game Week, Reputation Standing for non-Academy and non-Faunus Organisations will receive a decrease to the current points, which gets frozen upon reaching the Maximum Standing with the Organisation.

[Species] Each species available has several unique 'Trait' that may be obtained upon the start of the Tutorial, depending on which physical trait is chosen during creation.  
Monkey \- Agile Type.  
More to come


	5. Day 1:5 - Announcement

**A/N:** Enjoy

Sorry for the one week MIA. I actually finished writing it, but then—during editing—I felt that the way the conversation I wrote completely threw out character personalities. So I rewrote about 80% of it, basically the entire conversation.

Whole chapter's basically a conversation piece. Gosh, that's hard to write.

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

**Day 1:5** \- Announcement

"That's…a lot of people."

Everyone has gathered around and in front of the Beacon's Statue, most within the encircle ring of pillars. Hushed voices are uttered among small groups. Individuals posture around the avenue. An air of tension permeates in the area, even before they reach what Dusty considers the 'outside of the ring'. He swears he can even smell the scent of fear, not that he knew what _that_ smelled like. _Probably piss and sweat lol. Goddammit, shut it._ At least he manages to consciously rein his mouth and not mutter a reply.

Then again, most of the posturing individuals are the ones looking the most frightened.

Fiona falls in step beside him. "Are all of these people 'Players' like us?"

Dusty has his eyes set at a group of four at one of the many pillars, taking shelter under the long evening shadow casted by the setting sun. He is starting to believe that the idea of 'Dust-infused clothing equals Players' is not standing up to what he is currently perceiving. "I can't tell. Everyone is just wearing whatever."

And Sivitri is pacing along on the other side of Fiona. "It should be all Players. At the very least, more Players than NPCs here."

"Why would that be? There." Dusty diverts the party to a lamp post, the left post of the second set just before entering the foyer proper.

"The Headmaster's message, he said 'except those on guards and patrols'." Fiona takes the spot to lean against the lamp post while Dusty and Sivitri the Explainer flanks her. "Actual players like us were already ready to be booted by the game, so the only ones that will receive any guard or patrol missions will be NPCs."

"Actually I've done questing straight into getting booted before. Mostly with getting as much game time before regular scheduled maintenances." Dusty sometimes forget about it, but usually it was because he decided to ignore it in favour of gaming.

"Doesn't that cause you to lose your progress data?" Sivitri asks.

Dusty shrugs. "Never happened to me unless it's things like escort missions." He absolutely hated those where NPCs walk slower than a PC's running but faster than PC's walking.

"Lucky you."

"Live life on the edge, mate."

The chat lulls for a moment.

"So," Fiona starts, "about the people?" She brings the topic back.

Sivitri shrugs and offers nothing. Dusty slaps the back of his neck and tilts side to side for stretches. "Well, we can just go up to someone and ask." He paces on the spot, anxious about the whole situation: If anyone he asks goes confused and demands answer because they are non-players, he can cite insanity. "Or we wait and see if—Woah!"

The ground suddenly gives way under his idling steps. He fails to catch himself, stepping backwards onto the road. He bumps into someone walking past behind him before he could stop.

"Woa, hey!" A hand pushes him back on his tonfa.

Dusty turns around, an apology on his lips and halts. He recognises the spiky dark, greying-haired middle-aged man, looking irritated with an uncapped metal flask in hand. His grey dress shirt has a darkening spot, the other hand still lifted in the air as he looks at the expanding wet spot. An enlarged, razor-cutter-looking weapon hangs on the back of his waist, underneath the tattered cloak. Dusty blinks as his mind puts a name to who he is looking at.

He just bumped into Qrow Branwen.

"Sorry!" Dusty half-yells in a panic, standing up a little bit straighter as if he was addressing a superior. In some way, Qrow _is_. And now the scarecrow is eyeing his flask. "Sorry about that, sir. The road just—"

"Forget it." Qrow grunt, then whispers something to himself about…luck? Then shakes his flask, still filled. "It's just a case of misfortune."

"I'll buy a round!" Words spill out before Dusty processes it. Qrow eyes at him. He scratches the back of his neck. "Later. After the assembly." He added.

"Now we're talking." Qrow finally turns to him with a smirk, raising the flask and drinks some before keeping it away. He puts out the other hand. "Qrow Branwen."

Dusty takes the handshake. "Dusty Memphos." Letting go, he tilts his head back to gesture at his companions. "Those two are Fiona Lily and Sivitri."

Qrow looks around at to his companions, grins at them, then back to him. "Ho. Where's your fourth?"

"None yet." Dusty shakes his head, then throws a thumb back. "Open spot if you like."

"Heh, sorry." He lets go first. "Already on a team."

Despite that, Qrow still followed Dusty when he takes a few steps off the road to rejoin his companions. Sivitri has his arms crossed and head slanted, a questioning look directing at Dusty. _It's fine._ He nods back, then to Fiona he shrugs a shoulder at Qrow: _Know him?_ Fiona nods. "Here's Qrow."

"Nice to meet you "

"Pleasure."

Qrow takes the spot in front of Fiona, between the three with his back to the road, swaying slightly with hands tucked inside his pants pockets. "Seems like the three of you are a tight group, huh?" He looks from Sivitri to Fiona, then stops at Dusty. "Graduate team?"

"No. Circumstances put us together." Dusty replies. _Play it dumb. Follow the thread._ "What about your team?"

Qrow steps uneasily on the spot, casting his sight around. "Oh, they're around." Dusty tries to look around as well, expecting to see his sister in her _Raven form_ and spying. He does not find any avian lifeform. "One's a professor at Signal, probably scared out of his mind for his girls here and his students. The other two…well." He shrugs, hands raised.

"None of my original team is around as well." Dusty checks his Scroll: The rest of DFRL remain _offline._ He sighs and pockets it. "And I can't contact any of them."

"Worried for them?"

_They're fine_. "They can take care of themselves. If I see them, I'll see them."

A sympathetic nod, then Qrow turns to the others. "What about the two of you?"

Sivitri shakes his head once. "I flew solo." He ruffles his hair. "Or with randoms that I don't stay in contact with after party missions. This is the first time I stayed with anyone."

_Oh shit, does he know Qrow's not an actual player?_ Dusty sweats. Fiona is surprised as well and is questioning him with a look. Dusty gives her an unhappy face. _At least he kept it ambiguous enough._

Both Sivitri and Qrow miss their silent talk. "Heh, I guess this is a pretty big problem for you to do that."

"Yup, bro."

Qrow turns to Fiona. She looks back, then down and mumbles. Dusty pats Qrow's arm for his attention and shakes his head. Qrow understands. "Ah, my condolences."

"Thank you." She replies sadly.

"I suppose all of you know about the situation." He pulls out his flask for another drink. It stays. "What are your thoughts?"

"I'm waiting to see if anyone has a theory." Sivitri then gestures his head at Dusty, pushing Qrow to him.

"I…don't?" Dusty slowly says. He hopes Sivitri is talking about the method of deaths and not about being stuck inside the _game_. "I've seen some fantasy writing about people suddenly explode into flame seemingly randomly."

Sivitri makes a sound. "That sounds familiar, now that you said it…Isn't it a game?"

_Oh, man, stop!_

"That sounds interesting." Qrow does sound interested. "What's the title?"

"It was Par—"

"'Spontaneous Human Combustion'." Fiona yelps, cutting off Sivitri. _Hhhooo, nice one, Lady_. "It's a medical term describing people is set in fire without any visible sources of ignition nearby." She explains. "Although in most known cases, it occurred precisely because the source is non-visible immediately."

"Isn't that just a fantasy trope?" Qrow snorts. "Those ideas appear in movies."

"No no, it actually does happen, but the term is much more loose and in-between before the final conclusion." Fiona counts off her fingers. "Cigarettes, fireplaces, working with high heat sources, smuggling oil or Dust…The meaning of term itself is less magical than one would think."

"Hang on a minute," Qrow is definitely buying into it. "Wouldn't that just mean people died due to an exact external source?"

"That's why 'SHC' is mostly considered as an in-between term during an investigation, rarely as a conclusion, but that does happen." Fiona raises a hand. "Imagine someone smuggling oil—or Fire Dust across Kingdoms, if it burns out completely in the victim, it would be extremely difficult to pinpoint the actual cause of the burns once it burn itself out. And thus," she snaps her finger, "'SHC'."

_That's…actually interesting. Or was that complete bullshit?_

"Wait, I don't get it." Sivitri speaks. "If someone smuggles Dust on the person, how did it not get found out?"

Fiona grimaces. "You just don't smuggle it visibly."

"But where do you hide it? Luggages get searched. Pockets get scanned…"

"In your stomach."

_Wait…_"Wait, what?" Dusty speaks. "How'd you know that?"

"When you're friends with the Forensics department, you get to see lots of weird stuff." She shudders.

_Oh._ His stomach cramps at the thought. And then the guys groans. "Seriously, who swallows Dust just to smuggle it?" _Or drink oil? Holy shit!_

"When people are desperate, they'll do anything." Fiona replies. She points at Qrow, who is drinking until his cramps are cured. "I sincerely hope you don't smoke, Qrow."

"I don't, but why?"

"Fire and alcohol."

Qrow stares at the girl, just below his nose level, then glances at his flask and grimaces. "Thanks for the mental image. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome."

"Have you heard of the term 'sarcasm'?"

"I have, I just ignore it and pretend you're sincerely thankful."

Qrow grunts and pulls another drink. _Seriously, is that an Endless Flask of Liquor or something?_ The scarecrow just seems to keep drinking from it. Qrow pulls the flask away and gazes at it, then back to Fiona. "Did you…" He pauses, recalling something, then looks at all of them instead. "Did any of you hear of any word command of some form?"

"Word command?" Sivitri parrots it.

"Yup."

"Like 'flask'?" Dusty lifts an open palm to Qrow, wiggling his fingers inwards. He snorts.

"Nice try." _Drat._ Qrow gives Dusty the _you're dead_ eye. "And no." He takes a sip.

"Like 'Ah boy ah, come down and eat your dinner!'?" Fiona mimes yelling up an invisible stairs.

Qrow almost choked on his drink. He coughs, then grunts. "What even is that?! And no."

"Like yelling 'Rasengan!' and doing an attack?" Sivitri mimes pushing air with one hand onto an open palm then an throwing motion.

Qrow just looks vacantly at Sivitri. Then he sighs. "You know what? That's probably the closest description to what I mean, so yes."

_Ah goddammit, Siv, you're supposed to play along! Not answer him!_

Sivitri massages his chin. "My Semblance works that way, mostly: 'Warcry'. It's a sound-based Semblance that emits from my throat."

Qrow crosses his arms and paces on the spot. "It's close, but that's rather different to the situation we're in." He then gestures at Fiona, looking apologetically. "You probably heard it. The 'term'."

Fiona drops her head.

"Yeah, maybe." Dusty takes a slight step forward, getting between Qrow and Fiona, successfully taking his eyes off her. "I never heard anyone saying it myself though." He throws his head in Sivitri's direction. "Siv's the first person to find me and actually described to me about it."

"What do you think of it?"

Dusty shrugs exaggeratingly. "How would I know? I just said I never actually hear anyone saying it. And what about you?" He turns it around.

"Saw and heard it happen right in front of me."

_Oh…oh, shit?_

_So he knows about us? The game? The anime?_

_Why am I even so worried about him knowing, anyway?_

"Okay, so you know more than I do." Dusty tries to play it off. To sound pissed off. He actually is, for Fiona. "So why the interrogation?"

Qrow's hands are up and out, trying to placate Dusty. "Sorry, bad habit from the job. And…well…" He is about to drink again, then seemingly thought better of it and raises it towards Beacon. Dusty follows it, looking at the direction and sees the crowd.

_Past the crowd, the statue isn't blocking. Where there are camera flashes._

Amidst the flashing lights, there is a familiar blond-haired girl standing taller than crowd in his sight. In front of the Blondie is a shorter black-haired girl. Standing behind both of them are another black-haired girl with a large ribbon on her head and a girl with turquoise hair. And behind the all-girl team is another blond short-haired boy, with a scarlet-haired _someone_ blocked from view by the statue beside him. A tuft of orange appears and disappears constantly behind them, in front of the Asian-looking boy that is standing, the most obvious person of their team.

_They must be waiting on stairs. Why are the student teams here? To entertain the reporters?_

"See the students?" Now that Qrow mentions it, Dusty can identify the blazers and neckties on Yang, Jaune and Ren. "I got obligations to protect the kids. So I have to find out." Yang looks briefly in their direction, taps Ruby on her head and points to them, which caused the shorter girl to start jumping and waving. Qrow raises his flask. Half the crowd seems to be in awe at the student team. The situation turns awkward for the students and they quickly scamper into the building.

Then the crowd turns around and sees them. And the murmurings begin.

_Ah, crap. Don't make the situation worse._ Dusty is certain that Qrow's name is being mentioned as the volume start rising.

Yet Qrow seems to bask in the attention. "Heh, look at the crowd." _Wasn't he supposed to be a secret spy? Why the hell is he looking so happy?_ Qrow turns back to Dusty. "Look, I—"

Whatever that he wanted to say was interrupted when speakers around the foyer suddenly echoes loudly, drawing everyone's attention. _"Testing…testing…"_ Dusty turns back to the building again. He sees Professor Glynda Goodwitch standing at attention beside an unknown older woman with a lighter hair-colour than Glynda and wearing a man's suit. On the other side, unblocked by the statue, is Professors Peter Port and Bartholomew Oobleck, the latter tapping a microphone which echoes from the speakers.

Camera flashing intensifies.

Then Dusty hears a different voice speaking, someone _important_ who is standing with them but he fails to spot because of the statue.

_"I'll keep this brief."_ Yeah, that someone is definitely Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. He even used the same opener! _"An unidentified weapon had been unleashed upon Hunters across Remnant."_

_Across Remnant? Oh! Of course. All four Academies were valid starting zones for new players…Oh…fuck…How many of us tried to quit?_ _"Until the methodology of the attack is identified, I want all Hunters to remain within the border."_ _So we're confined, or quarantined. __"Missions will be temporarily halted until further notice, with some exceptions: Certain requirements must be fulfilled and limited to an assigned area; Patrols between the City and outlying villages will continue, but none is to be carried out alone."_

_"To that end, I urge every Hunter to register yourselves or your team."_ Dusty turns to see his companions' reactions. They return with worrying looks as well. _"For those of you who work alone, we will assign a team of four for you. Please rest assured that this is a mere temporary set up, until we can fully identify the threat."_ _I doubt it will happen anymore. No players that are here are suicidal and attempts to quit…_

_"Lastly, Hunters that do not have a place of their own due to this issue may obtain temporary lodging in Beacon Academy."_ _Oh right, player housing isn't a thing. __"Facilities are open for use, but subjected to availability."_

_"For more enquiries about this, please talk to Professor Goodwitch and Professor Peach, who will also be processing your registrations and team assignments in the amphitheatre."_ _Oh, the older woman is Peach? Hmm, must be the hair colour. She's only mentioned in the original series, if I remember correctly. __"For any other questions, please refer to Professor Port and Professor Oobleck. That will be all."_ The shouting starts up along with more camera flashes, but it seems to Dusty that the latter duo professors have intercept the reporters before they could get to the Headmaster. The door opens up behind them and both former professors enter the building, likely following behind Headmaster Ozpin who he still has not laid eyes on. He feels mildly disappointed about it.

"Alright, glad that that's over." _Oh right, Qrow's still here._ The scarecrow has his flask still, but pockets it just as Dusty turns to him. "As I was just saying, before old'Oz interrupted." Qrow crosses his arms. "I want to talk about our _situation_."

"I'll have to stop you here as well." Sivitri steps forward. "Why are you interrogating us? You've done enough damage around here already." He tilts his head to Fiona.

"It's okay, Sivitri." Fiona says. "I'm fine."

Now the scarecrow is acting sheepish. "My apologies. But I'm talking about…_something else._" He gestures outwards.

_What thing else?_ Then Qrow loses his grin and drops his hands. _Like, seriously, what?_

"Oh!" Fiona jumps forward. "You mean—"

A sudden ring sounds loudly among them. Dusty naturally pulls out his scroll, like his handphone back in real life. The ringing is not from him. Neither is it from Sivitri or Fiona, judging by their scrolls in hand and looks.

They turn to Qrow, who has his scroll up. A grey-haired man with a pair of tiny glasses show up on the hologram. _"Qrow, where are you?"_

_Oh, Ozpin…_

Qrow changes the call from video to voice-only, putting it to his ears. "I'm around." He looks at the Players. "Yeah." He shrugs at Dusty. "Fine, I'm on my way." He hangs up the call and keeps his scroll away. "Well, time to go and keep up appearances." He 'explains'. "We'll talk more later." And to Dusty he looks, "I'll be back for the drinks. See ya." And then, he just walks off.

"What was his problem?" Sivitri asks once the spy is out of hearing range.

Dusty turns to Sivitri. "He's an NPC." Sivitri blenches. "Supposed to be Ozpin's super spy. He definitely suspects us."

"I think…" Fiona speaks up. "Did either of you ever meet any GMs in-game before?"

"Game Masters?" Dusty and Sivitri looks at each other. The Brunet shakes his head. Then back to Fiona. "Nope. Why?"

"We've see a GM in-game before." Fiona taps her chin. Since 'We' can not be either Dusty or Sivitri, it must be with her possibly-deceased friend. "They tend to use actual canon characters for doing GM work. It stands out for players. But they are required to stay in-character when they pick up a character to use."

"Wait, you mean that guy is an actual player? A GM that has stuck with us?" Sivitri sounds relieved.

"I mean, maybe?" Fiona looks back to the school. "The GM we saw was using Professor Goodwitch as her character, not Qrow."

"Do you think this Glynda is also a GM?" Dusty asks. Fiona shakes her head.

"GM Rachel breaks character when she plays, despite what the management outlined. So I don't think Professor Glynda is Rachel."

Dusty goes into thinking mode. "Qrow only seems to break character near the end."

"He didn't mention about his nieces, just 'students' in general." Fiona points out.

Dusty recalls further back. "He didn't say anything about STRQ either, just Taiyang as Signal teacher."

"It's possible he just doesn't like to be reminded of their fate." Fiona says. "I know I don't."

Both fall into silence after the speculation. "So, verdict?" Sivitri asks.

Dusty looks to Fiona. She shrugs. Dusty returns to Sivitri. "I guess we wait and learn more." _Can't get over the man is just being a super spy…And he'll be back._ Sivitri nods, accepting that.

And now, for the next order of business. Dusty looks around the foyer. "So, we still need a fourth." The crowd had thinned during their discussion. Dusty turns back to his companions. "Do we _Eeny, meeny, miny, moe_ for it?"

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you for reading. If you're curious about the reason I rewrote, I originally had Qrow picking a fight. It looked dumb as I was editing it and so I scrapped the entire thing.

**Linkone1**: I plan on having places **shown** up to Volume 5 being available (because I haven't watch Volume 6 yet), but as of current planning, none of them will actually appear for the characters, except for them being mentioned. Expect things to hang in, around or nearby of Vale, because Headmaster Ozpin has barred them from going out there.


End file.
